PSC Spotlight: Diego Barcala-Delgado
Diego Barcala-Delgado has spent several years training and working at the Psychological Services Center (PSC), a training clinic for doctoral students in the clinical psychology program at UMass Amherst. Here he is developing both the clinical skills and professional values that guide effective, compassionate care.
At the PSC, graduate students provide mental health services to the community while under the supervision of select faculty members in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. Like all PSC trainees, Barcala-Delgado began his work with a strong emphasis on foundational training. During his first year, he focused on learning how to conceptualize clients’ presenting concerns, understand how identity and context shape mental health, and practice core therapeutic skills through role-plays and exercises led by PSC Director Christopher Martell. He also became familiar with PSC policies and procedures, laying the groundwork for ethical and effective clinical practice.
By the end of their first semester, students begin conducting phone screenings—30-minute initial conversations that help determine whether the PSC is a good fit for a potential client. These screenings ensure that clients receive appropriate care while allowing students to develop early clinical judgment.
Direct therapy work typically begins during students’ second year. Barcala-Delgado began by seeing a client one-on-one and meeting with his supervisor and student cohort weekly. He gradually increased his caseload to as many as four clients. While the transition to seeing clients can be nerve-racking, Barcala-Delgado notes that the high level of supervision makes a crucial difference. “There’s a lot of anticipation at first—you really want to help clients,” he said. “You spend time thinking about what you said and what you could have said differently. But that initial anxiety slowly starts to decrease often with the help of our supervisors.”
Sessions at the PSC are video recorded, allowing supervisors and students to review sessions together. They use a reflective, problem-solving approach which helps students improve their abilities and gain confidence. Students’ efforts are also reinforced by graduate-level coursework in abnormal psychology, psychotherapy, and multicultural issues, which Barcala-Delgado describes as deeply applied and directly connected to clinical work.
In addition, Barcala-Delgado’s work in the PSC prepared him for his external practicum experience where he continued to conduct individual therapy as well as facilitating group therapy, including an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) group. He has also been involved with long-standing behavioral therapy groups that serve clients from across Massachusetts. His clinical work is grounded in behavioral models such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and ACT.
“These behavioral models are our grounding in how we think about patients. We then come up with solutions by consulting the latest research and evidence-based models of care to flexibly respond to what clients need,” he remarks.
As part of his advanced training, Barcala-Delgado is also gaining experience in clinical supervision, working with new student trainees as they begin seeing clients at the PSC. He describes supervision as an interesting change from being in the therapy room: “It's challenging to balance what the student you're supervising needs, what the client needs, and what's feasible. You’re doing your best to keep these different parties involved and trying to make everybody focus on client care.” In this role, Barcala-Delgado is learning skills that will prepare him for leadership positions later in his career.
Alongside his clinical work, Barcala-Delgado conducts research with his advisor Professor Maureen Perry-Jenkins that focuses on how workplace experiences affect the mental health of new parents. Recently, they explored what workplace factors influence postpartum depression among Black mothers and fathers who were at higher risk of developing this condition.
Using quantitative data from North Carolina and Pennsylvania, as well as in-person focus groups held at the UMass Center in Springfield, Barcala-Delgado and his collaborators found that positive and supportive workplace environments are linked to better mental health outcomes. “We look at the policy level—parental leave, workplace location flexibility, and allowing parents some say in their schedule. We also focus on culture: how supportive supervisors are, how coworkers treat new parents, whether supervisors allow some schedule flexibility, and how much autonomy parents have at work,” he says. Greater employer support can ease stress as a parent balances work with caring for a new baby.
Additionally, the focus groups have revealed encouraging trends, including reports of increased workplace support for Black mothers—findings that point to the workplace as a key element in mental health outcomes for new parents.
As he applies for full-time clinical internship placements—the final stage of his doctoral training—Barcala-Delgado hopes to continue integrating research and clinical practice with a focus on supporting parents’ mental health.
Reflecting on his time at the PSC, Barcala-Delgado expresses: “We learn a lot about therapy and how to provide it, but it's also interesting to learn about people and how to connect with them. I have learned how to sit with somebody who's going through a lot and hold that space for them and try to help them…it takes courage and empathy.”